Editorial: Trump’s withdrawal symptoms

The US President’s exit from 66 international organisations, including the UNFCCC, marks a major setback for global climate action and undermines America’s leadership in clean energy

United States President Donald Trump continues to maintain a high level of outrage, shocking the world with one preposterous action after another. The decision to exit from 66 United Nations and international organisations, including major forums for cooperation on climate change, peace, and democracy, is the latest in a long list of maverick moves. Ostensibly, the Trump administration justified America’s withdrawal from major treaties, organisations and conventions on the grounds that they are contrary to the country’s interests. The sweeping changes would mean that the US would cease participation and also cut all funding to the affected entities. The list includes the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The UN FCCC is the global treaty under which the UN conducts the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) climate talks. It forms the bedrock of international cooperation to deal with the climate crisis and has been agreed to by every country in the world since its inception 34 years ago. America becomes the first country to pull out of it. In a chilling irony, this would mean that the world’s largest historical polluter withdraws completely from the global climate change mitigation agreement and scientific assessment of climate change. It also means the US will not contribute towards climate finance to developing countries’ energy transition, mitigation and adaptation. From the beginning, Trump has routinely ridiculed climate science as a scam and a hoax, and has actively hobbled clean energy projects and other climate policies.

The Trump administration has been turning its back on the climate crisis since day one, removing the United States from the Paris Agreement, dismantling America’s scientific infrastructure, curbing access to greenhouse gas emissions data, and ending essential investments in the clean energy transition. While pulling out of the Paris Agreement already signalled Trump’s intentions, exiting the UNFCCC will remove the US from the international climate governance architecture altogether. This is a self-defeating move as it will further hamper America’s ability to compete with China, which is increasingly dominant in the world’s burgeoning clean energy technology industries. While the Trump administration is abdicating the US’ global leadership, the rest of the world continues to shift to cleaner power sources and take climate action. The US ranks at the top of the lists of countries with the highest current annual emissions, per-capita emissions, and the greatest historical responsibility. According to the Global Carbon Project and other sources, US territorial CO2 emissions in 2024 were about 4.9 billion tonnes, roughly 12.7% of the global CO2 emissions that year. On a per-capita basis, US emissions were roughly 14.6 tonnes per person in 2024, much higher than the global average. It is also the largest cumulative emitter for CO2, from fossil fuels and industry in most mainstream carbon accounting.

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